The land east of the Jordan, which was populated by Semitic tribes (Ammonites, Edomites, Moabites) and closely linked to the history of Palestine, was a transit area for trade caravans from Egypt to Syria and from and to Arabia. Since the end of the 5th century BC The Arab Nabataeans settled the country from the 1st century BC. Until the 1st century AD, they continued to expand their rule with the capital Petra. In 106 AD their empire was converted into the Roman province of Arabia , the capital of which was in Bostra (Bosra, Syria), without the area losing its economic, cultural and religious importance (including the Decapolis around Gerasa). Under Byzantine suzerainty, the (Christian) Arabs ruled in the 6th century Ghassanids. After the conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century, it largely shared the historical development of Syria. In the 7th / 8th In the 19th century, Jordan experienced a heyday under the Umayyads. whose castles (Mshatta) with the associated settlements and economic facilities are evidence. In the 12th century the country came partly under the influence of the Crusaders. During the Ottoman period (1516–1918) Jordan was part of the Damascus province. Its importance increased with the construction of the Hidjas Railway at the beginning of the 20th century. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1918), Great Britain won rule over Palestine in the Peace Treaty of Sèvres (1920), and in 1921 set the Hashimite Abdallah Ibn al-Husain in the area east of the Jordanas emir of Transjordan (East Bank) and in 1922 was transferred to Palestine as a mandate of the League of Nations; In 1923 it formally declared Transjordan an independent emirate under British mandate administration. In an agreement with Saudi Arabia (1925), Transjordan gained access to the sea with the acquisition of Aqaba. The emirate became a mainstay of British Middle East policy. On the basis of an alliance treaty (February 20, 1928), the British High Commissioner (for Palestine and Transjordan) effectively directed foreign policy. In the interests of Great Britain’s Middle East political interests, J. B. Glubb (Glubb Pascha) set up the Transjordan troops (Arab Legion) in allied operations in Iraq and Syria. On March 22, 1945, Transjordan took part in the founding of the Arab League. On March 22, 1946 Great Britain recognized the independence of Transjordan by treaty. With the acceptance of the title of king by Abdallah Ibn al-Husain (May 25, 1946) his territory was renamed the Hashimite Kingdom of Transjordan. On March 15, 1948, Great Britain and Transjordan renewed their treaty of alliance (for a further 20 years). See itypeauto for Jordan literature.
After the establishment of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948), Transjordan conquered the eastern part of the West Bank (including the Old City of Jerusalem) and officially incorporated it into his national territory as West Jordan in 1950. The proclamation of the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan(12. 12. 1949) should emphasize the finality of this annexation. However, among the Palestinian population, especially among the refugees from the western part of the former Palestine, which now formed the national territory of Israel, a sharp opposition to the monarchy and its policies that were friendly to England developed; many Palestinians accused the Hashimite dynasty of accepting the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel. On July 20, 1951, Abdallah Ibn al-Husain was assassinated; Talal (* 1911, † 1972) , his son and successor, had to renounce the throne in 1952 for health reasons in favor of his son Husain.
Under the impression of the overthrow of the monarchy in Egypt (1952) as well as the pan-Arab-oriented policy of the Egyptian President G. Abd el-Nasser , which tried to achieve non-alignment in the East-West conflict, v. a. the pro-Nazi forces in Jordan (especially numerous among the Palestinians) the politics of the Hashimite dynasty; In 1954 and 1956, the question of Jordan joining the Baghdad Pact (later the CENTO Pact) sparked unrest. Under pressure from his domestic political opponents, Husain II dismissed Glubb Pasha in March 1956as Commander in Chief of the Jordanian Armed Forces. After the election victory of the Nazi-oriented Socialist National Front (October 1956), the government led by it under Prime Minister Suleiman Nabulsi (* 1908, † 1976) initiated a reorientation of Jordanian politics: rapprochement with Egypt, recognition of the USSR and the People’s Republic of China as well as (im March 1957) Dissolution of the alliance with Great Britain. Relying on the army and the Bedouin tribes of eastern Jordan, Husain II.in April 1957, the Nabulsi government, dissolved the parties and ruled authoritarian with Prime Minister devoted to him. From February to July 1958 Jordan formed an “Arab Federation” with Iraq; to protect his own throne, the king called British troops into the country (stationed there until November 1958). Internationally supported by a. on the USA and Great Britain, Jordan turned since the end of the 1950s in the inner-Arab field of forces v. a. Saudi Arabia too.
Under increasing pressure from inside and outside (unrest in West Jordan, especially among the pro-Nazi Palestinians, November 1966; strong tensions with Egypt), Jordan joined the Arab front against Israel in May 1967 and placed its troops under the Egyptian high command: In the Six Day War (June 1967) Jordan lost West Jordan (with the old city of Jerusalem [East Jerusalem]) after heavy fighting and had to take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees in its remaining national territory.
The guerrilla organizations of the Palestinians operating under the common umbrella of the PLO, which since 1967 have increasingly taken action against Israel from Jordan and provoked its counter-attacks, developed in Jordan into a state within a state; they called for the overthrow of the monarchy ever more openly. With the smashing and expulsion of the Palestinian organizations in 1970/71 (climax: “Black September” 1970) by the Jordanian army, the conflict between the monarchy and the republican-Palestinian forces reached its climax. While Husain II.was able to consolidate its domestic political position, Jordan fell into a severe isolation in the Arab world. The lack of financial aid from the oil-producing Arab states (especially from Libya) exacerbated the economic crisis triggered by the military defeat in 1967.
In October 1973, Jordanian troop contingents participated in the 4th Israeli-Arab War (“Yom Kippur War”) as part of the Syrian army, without Jordan officially entering the war against Israel. At the summit conference of the heads of state and government of the Arab League in Rabat in October 1974, Husain II was forced, under pressure from the Arab states, to renounce Jordan’s sovereign rights over the West Jordan in favor of the PLO. The king dissolved the parliament, half of which consisted of representatives from the West Bank (now West Bank), and replaced it (April 1978) with an appointed consultative council.
After Husain II had first welcomed the peace initiative of Egyptian President A. al-Sadat against Israel (1977), he rejected the Egyptian-Israeli treaties of Camp David (1978) and Washington (1979) (Middle East conflict), and it came to pass a temporary reconciliation with the leadership of the PLO (J. Arafat). In association with the states of the Arabian Peninsula (especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait), Jordan supported Iraq in the 1st Gulf War (1980-88), but in doing so came into conflict with Syria, which was on the Iranian side.